Not applicable.
Not applicable.
The present invention relates to sinks as commonly employed in bathrooms and kitchens. It appears to be especially well suited for use with kitchen sinks made of sheet metal.
Sinks employed in bathrooms, kitchens and other environments can be made from a variety of materials such as sheet metal, cast iron or plastics. Such sinks can be efficient vibration and thus sound transmitters. This is a particularly significant problem when a garbage disposal is connected to the sink, and may also be a problem to some extent when silverware, pots or other items are accidentally dropped into a sink basin.
Vibration transmitted along a counter top can also cause objects on the counter to move, and thus possibly fall off the counter top. Further, noise transmitted by such sinks may be annoying not only to those who are near the sink, but also to those who may be disturbed in other rooms or adjacent apartments.
A number of techniques have been employed to reduce such vibration and noise. In one approach the entire (or most of the) outer surface of the sink is coated with a layer of foam, rubberized, or asphaultic material. Because it is the outer, rather than the inner, surface of the sink that is coated, the attachment of the material does not adversely affect the appearance of the sink from the vantage point of one who is using the sink. However, this can increase the weight of the sink (and thus shipping costs), and in any event uses extra material. Further, while coating the entire bottom surface of the sink in this manner does reduce the amount of vibration somewhat, the coated sink is still capable of vibrating to some extent since the coating only increases the mass of the sink by a relatively small amount.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,018 describes a modified technique where a large, thick and heavy metal plate is clamped directly under the basin around the drain outlet. It covers what appears to be the majority of the underside of the basin. The plate must be clamped to the sink by way of adjustable screws near the sleeve/drain. Small rubber pads are positioned between the sink and the outer corners of the plate to insure firm contact between the plate and the sink such that the sink and the plate are effectively one piece.
Although clamping of such a large metal plate to the underside of the sink reduces much of the noise created by the sink, particularly during operation of a garbage disposal, it also has certain disadvantages. It uses a substantial amount of material, greatly increases the weight of the sink, and has assembly cost.
In unrelated developments, AcoustiSeal, Inc. has developed a line of thin laminate sound dampening materials which they primarily market for use in the automotive field, and which may have been previously applied to sound dampen certain appliances. The materials comprise a laminate made of an aluminum foil constraining layer and a viscoelastic polymer layer bonded together with the viscoelastic layer being itself a sticky material so that the laminate can be xe2x80x9ctapedxe2x80x9d against a surface to be sound dampened. However, Applicants are unaware of any suggestion in the art to apply this material to sinks, much less teachings of how the material can be used in connection with kitchen sinks for optimal advantage.
Thus, it can be seen that a need still exists for improved techniques to sound/vibration dampen sinks.
In one aspect the invention provides a sink having a basin having a bottom wall and side walls, each of said walls having an inner surface and an outer surface. A drain orifice extends through the first basin""s bottom wall. A first vibration dampening pad is adhered to the outer surface of the basin""s bottom wall between the orifice and a side wall, and a second vibration dampening pad is adhered to the outer surface of a basin side wall. Both of the pads can be a laminate of a metal (e.g. aluminum) foil layer and a butyl polymer layer.
In other preferred forms there are two such pads adhered to the outer surface of the bottom wall positioned on opposed sides of the drain orifice, and the pad adhered to the side wall is centrally located on that side wall. In such form, the butyl polymer layer is considerably thicker than (e.g., at least twice as thick as) the metal foil layer, and the sticky butyl polymer layer adheres the butyl polymer layer to the basin.
In particularly desirable forms, the surface area of the first pad is less than half the surface area of the outside surface of the bottom wall, and the surface area of the second pad is less than half the surface area of the outer surface of the side wall to which it is adhered.
In most applications, each basin of the sink will have four such side walls, each of which has such an outside surface, and each of which has a vibration dampening pad adhered thereto. The pads adhered to the four such side walls will adhere adjacent a central portion of each such side wall, with the pads being essentially rectangular and positioned essentially parallel to an edge of the walls to which they are adhered. Typically, each pad will have an outer surface area of less than one-hundred square centimeters, yet be positioned so as to damp vibration along the sink.
In another aspect the invention provides a sink including a basin having a bottom wall and side walls, each of said walls having an inner surface and an outer surface. A drain orifice extends through the basin""s bottom wall. A first vibration dampening pad adheres to the outer surface of the first basin""s bottom wall between the orifice and a first of the side walls, and a second, separate vibration dampening pad adheres to the outer surface of the first basin""s bottom wall between the orifice and a second of the side walls. The second of the side walls opposes the first of the side walls. Each of the first and second vibration dampening pads includes a primary layer formed from a butyl-type material and a secondary layer formed from a metallic material.
In another aspect the invention provides a method of dampening vibration along a sink having a basin with a bottom wall and four side walls. Each such wall has an outer surface and an inner surface. One adheres to the outer surface of each of the walls a vibration dampening patch comprising a laminate of a metal foil and a polymer. The surface area of each patch is less than half of the surface area of the outer surface of the wall to which the patch is adhered. Two such patches are positioned on the bottom wall, on opposed sides of the drain orifice.
The present invention thus provides a technique for sound dampening a sink without greatly increasing the weight of the sink, or using unnecessary amounts of expensive sound deadening materials. The sound dampening patches can be applied without tools or special processes by merely xe2x80x9ctapingxe2x80x9d them to the outside of the basin.
Centrally (e.g. some portion of the patch being within three centimeters of the geographic center of the wall to which it is adhered) positioning the patches make them more effective even though they bond to only a small part of the sink wall. Further, sandwiching the drain by opposed patches effectively deadens the garbage disposal vibration, without requiring a full ring around the garbage disposal.
These and other advantages of the invention will be apparent from the detailed description and drawings.